Betrothal
by spero spiro
Summary: Marriage proposals were meant to be formal and altogether unpleasant, which was why Toph was hiding in the garden on her birthday. Sokka, however, didn't have that excuse. Written for the Day One prompt for Tokka week, "Betrothal".


**Betrothal**

**Note: This was written for Day One of Tokka Week. The theme was "Betrothal", and since I wasn't feeling particularly creative and imaginative, that ended up being the title, too. As always, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Same old "I don't own it" spiel. I'm not making any money off these flights of fancy and fanon worlds.**

It happened without warning the day of Toph's sixteenth birthday. Despite the superfluous extravagance of the birthday party her parents had planned for her, she had fled to the gardens, comfortable being surrounded by earth rather than the polished wooden floors and crowds of people she wasn't entirely sure she knew. Since she had played a reasonably important role in the Avatar's journey and eventual victory over Fire Lord Ozai her parents had realized that keeping her hidden away from the world was no longer an option. Her status as a hero was beneficial to their own fame, but still she was regardless kept under whatever tight control they could manage.

Which was why she was sitting among the spring peonies pretending she couldn't hear the yells for her to come. Her pale green dress was faintly stained by earth and grass and though she wore a thick cloud of perfume, the fresh smell of the grass managed to cling to her skin in a comfortable reminder of what she really was. What she was _not_, however, was particularly feminine, no matter how many pretty dresses she wore or how many hours spent on taming her hair and shaving off her callouses. She felt some footsteps come dangerously close to her cluster of bushes and she curled up tighter to disappear into her camoflauge, only to find one large branch peeled back and a face very close to her ear.

"Well, that certainly looks cozy," Sokka's voice drawled sarcastically, looking around before stepping in and sitting next to Toph, taking up far more room than she expected him to. She knew he'd grown, and was periodically startled by the growth spurts the older teen still experienced at 19, but hadn't completely realized that he easily topped six feet and resembled his father's build. But, then, she hadn't "seen" him in nearly half a year.

"Hi, Sokka," She mumbled, fighting the rise of a hot blush she didn't think she still got around him.

"Sounds like people are trying to find the birthday girl." He remarked calmly, and she could feel him staring at her intently.

"Er, well. Yes, I suppose they are," She finished with as much dignity as she could muster. "The party isn't really my thing."

Sokka made a small noise in the back of his throat that Toph presumed was supposed to be acknowledgment of her words before speaking. "Well, you know Aang, Katara, and Zuko and Mai came for the party, right?"

"I know, but so did three other suitors..." Sighing, Toph fell back against the ground, careful to slip in a good wiggle to further stain her dress. At this, Sokka gave an involuntary squeak, and Toph wrinkled her brow at the spike in his heartrate. "You okay, Sokka?"

"Yeah," He managed, readjusting himself uncomfortably. "Yeah, I'm fine. So you're not going to your own birthday party because…"

"Because Mom and Dad still think they should have a heavy hand in controlling my life."

"And… that's with arranged marriages?" Sokka sounded distant, as though he had a hard time grasping the idea.

"Yeah," Toph continued, the frown growing deeper. "Since I'm old enough to get married now, they want to make sure that happens. They're afraid being an earthbender might tarnish my chances of marriage, and that whole business with running away with Aang…" She sounded a little bitter, but she picked up a piece of earth and molded it carefully with her fingers. "Anyway, they don't want to take any chances with me. Better to get me off their hands and into a good marriage."

"And you're going to do it?" Sokka sounded surprised, and she laughed.

"Of course not. I have every intention of making sure not a single one of them even considers me for marriage." She gave a defiant squirm, her hip rubbing against his leg as she dirtied the dress further.

"You're something else, you know that Toph?" Sokka was laughing now, as she pushed herself up with the trace of a smile. "I don't know why anyone _wouldn't_ want to marry you."

She shoved him playfully. "Don't say that. I don't want to get married."

He shoved back, the laugh never once leaving his eyes. "Not even to the right guy?"

_Shove_. "I don't think he's out there."

_Shove_. "Oh, I'm sure you're just saying that."

Toph's push was gentler, more reserved this time. "Well, he is," She confessed. "But he's not exactly going to be interested in me."

Sokka hesitated, his hand on her arm and the smile fading from his face. "How can you say that? You can't be sure of that."

She shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it. I'm fine without him, aren't I?"

He slowly lowered his hand. "That's awful, Toph."

She punched him in the arm again without any hesitation. "Shut up, Sokka. I said I was alright with not getting married. I don't want to deal with any of that kissy-kissy romantic crap."

"Not at all then, huh?" Their legs were pressed together, now they were both sitting up and back to being so close together. Toph felt the blush return with a vengeance.

"Nope," She deadpanned, curiously feeling how _his_ body temperature rose with hers, and the bloodflow was… Her eyes widened as her face glowed red. He was somehow moving closer to her, and she tried to innocently scoot back. The space between the cluster of bushes wasn't particularly large to start with, and with both of them there wasn't much room for maneuvering. She finally dared to speak. "I don't like kissing."

"Really?" Sokka sounded more amused than surprised, though he did a magnificent job in feigning shock. "Have you ever even kissed anyone, Toph?"

Her veins flooded with ice. "Er, well," She tried desperately to think, even as she felt him somehow managing to get closer to her. A finger twirled the end of her hair, which she had let loose for her birthday, only held in place by a small, gold band. "I kissed Suki once!" She blurted, batting at his hands and mentally slapping herself for bringing up such an embarassing memory.

"I suppose we have that in common, then," And just as suddenly as the moment had come over them, it was broken and Sokka pulled away.

The embarrassment of the memory drained away, replaced by a regretful shame for mentioning Suki and ruining the moment. She had certainly been referring to _him_ when they had been bantering back and forth about marriage and her romantic prospects, and she had been harboring romantic sentiments toward him for the better part of four years, but he had been with _Suki_ those same four years.

"How is Suki?" She dared to ask, masking some of the usual roughness in her voice.

He looked away to stare at the ground a moment before answering in guarded tones. "She's… living on Kyoshi Island with all the other warriors. She's fine."

Suddenly it all seemed to fall into place and the shame she had been feeling only intensified. "I… Ah… I'm sorry, Sokka."

The humor returned to his voice. "Don't be. There was a bit of a… conflict of interest, I suppose. It's not your fault."

Not feeling any better, Toph nodded and tried to dust some stray pieces of grass off her dress.

"And here I thought you were trying to make your dress messy with all that wiggling," He teased, earning himself another shove.

"Oh, shut up," She grumped. "I'm trying to feel properly sorry for you since you and Suki broke it off."

"Hey," Sokka raised his arms in defeat. "It wasn't for my benefit, was it?" She shot him as dirty a look as she could manage, but he only laughed merrily.

"Try me," She managed through clenched teeth. "If my parents don't kill _me_ for being "loose" with a man in the garden, Katara will kill _you_ for taking advantage of me in a bunch of bushes."

"We aren't being 'loose in the garden', so I don't think you have to worry about that. Besides, no one is going to find us." Sokka sounded so sure of himself that Toph stopped dead.

"Why not? _What did you do_?" She didn't expect to be so apprehensive of Sokka's pranks, given that she had participated in many of them over the years, but this was _her_ home, and _her_ birthday party.

"Not what_ I_ did, what Aang _will_ do."

"You had better be joking," She threatened, trying to feel in the general direction of the main house for any disturbances. Other than the general buzzing of boring conversation, she heard nothing. "You're joking," She turned her face in the direction she was almost certain his face was, boldly jutting out her chin.

His smile was almost lost on Toph, who immediately picked up on the change in his heartrate and carefully "watched" him as he moved. Finally, he spoke, voice softer than she had expected. "You'll see."

Later, she would swear she had heard nothing past those words but a small noise from the back of his throat before his fingers traced the defiant curve of her jaw, drawing her closer still before kissing her ardently. Unsure when or how the kiss had started, Toph barely noticed that his arms no longer seemed constricting. She barely noticed anything at all as her mind came crashing to a halt at simple comprehension that _Sokka was kissing her_.

Just as abruptly, he pulled away and pushed a stray piece of hair from her face.

Unable to do anything else, her mouth fell open and she gaped at him. She couldn't quite form the words she wanted, but he made up for that with his impossible recovery.

"So, would you care to go back to your party now?"

Feeling particularly mortified as he started to help her stand, she pulled him back down to the ground and pressed her mouth onto his with an awkward bump of foreheads when she laced her arms around his neck. Finally satisfied, she shoved at his chest and broke away to stand up by herself.

"Toph…" He stumbled over her name, clearly stunned.

"Might as well get back to party now, right?" She picked off the stray blades of grass which clung to the dress as he gaped at her.

Leaping to his feet, he mimicked her. "You're terrible, you know that?"

"_You're_ the one who came to my birthday party, trapped me under a bush, and took advantage of me."

"You make it sound so much worse than it was."

"Oh, it wasn't _bad_." She smirked at him.

"Even so, that's not exactly how I remember it. Now, are we going back to the party?"

"Might as well get the suitors out of here as soon as possible before Mom and Dad get antsy about which one I'll choose," She mumbled.

Sokka gave a small jerk. "You have to pick today?"

"Just for courtship, but… Yes, I suppose. Why else would they all be here?" She sighed, this time out of displeasure, before taking a small step and stumbling a little on the hem of her viridian dress. "Might as well try and _talk_ them out of wanting to marry me."

Sokka looked troubled as he extended a hand to help steady her. "Careful or you'll rip your dress."

She faced him, blind eyes not quite focused on his face, but her smile was mischievous. "Maybe it would deter them if I did. Coming back to the house from the garden with another man and a ripped dress covered in grass stains might be suitable scandal to put them off."

He gave a sweeping appraisal of her appearance. "Aside from a few well-placed stains, you look good enough to go turn away some marriage proposals."

She laughed and pushed aside the peony branches to step out of her hiding place. "Oh, you never know. I might just accept one of them."

"After I went out of my way to take advantage of you under a bush?" The humor in his voice masked the anxious look on his face as he followed her.

She waved away the notion before she had the chance to attach any hope to its validity.

"Yes, but you aren't formally proposing marriage to me by kissing me in the bushes."

Sokka stopped suddenly, staring after her silently. He muttered something, and Toph slowed to a stop.

"Sokka?"

He screwed up his courage and caught up with her in a few long strides. "Who said I wasn't?"

The words hung in the garden air for a long moment before Toph opened her mouth, closed it again, and then punched him in the arm. "I don't think I've ever gotten a less romantic marriage proposal."

Ignoring the crack against his methods, Sokka rubbed the sore spot on his arm. "How many times have you been proposed to?"

"More than I care to count," She told him absently, trying to piece together her scattered mind. "Why didn't you say something _before_, Sokka?"

"Why do you think everyone came up to your birthday, except to make sure you married the right person? I just… thought I'd probably be better than anyone your parents picked out." She stared. He pressed on. "Unless you think that ideal guy is going to come propose to you." At this, he felt a rush of instinct to run for his own self-preservation.

"It was _you_," Toph managed thickly. "It's been you all along, you idiot."

"Oh."

The silence was broken only by a particularly cheerful swallow in the trees as they stood stock still. Without warning, as though simultaneously struck by lightning, they met in a flurry of half-conceived admissions, clinging grasps, hysterical laughter, and the occasional brush of lip on lip.

The noise they made in the garden attracted only one of the guests, who immediately averted his gray eyes away, turned around, and brushed past Katara.

"Is something wrong, Aang?" She laid a hand on his shoulder, brow furrowing in concern.

"Oh, no," He smiled as he removed her hand and squeezed it. "Just a favor I have to do for Sokka."

Katara opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but never got the words out as Aang disappeared into the crowd. She peered out the garden door and stepped backward in surprise.

"Oh." She murmured, as the sounds of chaos broke out behind her.

**End**


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